Monopoly is the world’s most popular board game created in the past century, with players vying for control over territories bearing the names of various Atlantic City locales. Patented in 1935, Monopoly’s bare bones approach to property acquisition and wealth-building came without the more illicit themes of gambling, prostitution and graft which helped define Atlantic City’s (and the game’s) most valuable property: the boardwalk. The HBO series, Boardwalk Empire takes a look at all those issues by turning the clocks back to the prohibition era, and the role of one Enoch “Nucky” Thompson in ruling over Atlantic City’s growth. The show highlights the boardwalk’s role as the East Coast destination resort of its day – well before casino gambling was legalized in 1976. Louis Malle’s 1980 film, Atlantic City opens with a real-life shot of the Traymore Hotel’s 1972 demolition, paving the way for the boardwalk to become the newest casino mecca –- an identity which plays a large role in the pivotal Atlantic City scene of The Godfather: Part III. As Michael Corleone rides a helicopter toward the boardwalk to pay off his former Vegas casino partners, he approaches Atlantic City from its landside, passing over a shadowy cityscape that pales before the glowing coastal gaming hotels on the horizon. He then lands atop the Trump Castle Hotel Casino (here, renamed the Palazzo Azzurro), before entering an opulent hotel interior (Rome’s Cinecittá Studios) to meet with his fellow criminals. It’s inside the Trump Plaza Casino where ex-con Danny Ocean reconnects with corrupt baccarat dealer Frank Catton at the beginning of Ocean’s Eleven, but only after we’re shown a seaside approaching shot of the boardwalk’s casino skyline — the city it supports nowhere in sight. While that film features a Las Vegas casino heist, the main set piece in Snake Eyes was originally supposed to be a tidal wave taking out the Atlantic City boardwalk. But it was later dropped over budget concerns, leaving us the story of a corrupt cop who gets caught up with a conspiracy during a fixed boardwalk casino boxing match (filmed inside the Montreal Forum). Other popular Atlantic City pastimes have made screen appearances. The Resorts International Hotel was the destination for two traveling pool hustlers vying to win a big tournament in The Color of Money, while the Atlantic City Racetrack is where a kleptomaniac’s past catches up with her in Marnie. Yet the boardwalk’s casinos seem to always engender the most cinematic corruption. Owning Mahoney follows a bank manager who digs a deep gambling debt in Atlantic City, and Sour Grapes is about two cousins whose friendship is torn apart after one of them wins a slots jackpot. It’s the legacy of A.C.’s signature game though that comes between two brothers in The King of Marvin Gardens – as the illicit quest to secure investors for a hotel deal makes one brother lament to the other, “it’s Monopoly out there.”